Some transgender youth treatments banned in Arkansas

It is the first state in the US to outlaw certain types of treatments, drawing ire from rights groups and big business.

Arkansas on Tuesday became the first US state to ban certain types of treatment to transgender youth, overriding a veto by Governor Asa Hutchinson and inviting lawsuits from civil rights groups that have pledged to stop it. The law threatens any healthcare professional who provides puberty blockers, cross-sex hormones or gender-affirming surgery to minors with the loss of their medical licence and opens them up to lawsuits from patients who later regret their procedures. It is one of many laws being considered around the US: At least 16 other states are debating similar legislation, which transgender advocates have attacked, saying that cutting off badly needed care to adolescents would inevitably lead to more suicides.